The training center schedule had ended, and Shuren had been given a two-month break, but his days remained unchanged.
SWISH, WHOOSH—!
He devoted himself entirely to training.
He swung his sword until he was sick of it.
To the point that he could perform the basic sword techniques even in his dreams.
WHOOSH—!
Shuren's sword now carried far more weight than before.
He was no longer swinging it with physical strength alone.
It was the result of adding mana to his movements.
Shuren was satisfied with his sword strikes.
Even with mana added to his attacks, the path of his sword remained steady and remarkably clean.
‘This is why you train the fundamentals.’
Shuren felt proud.
That was how basic training worked.
Its effects were difficult to see immediately.
But every time one crossed into a new realm, the foundation accumulated over time revealed its strength.
Just like now.
Shuren had refused to grow impatient and stubbornly focused on the fundamentals.
As a result, he had built a vessel capable of fully containing the power of his growth.
‘I'm stronger than I was when I reached Two-Star in my previous life.’
In his previous life, Shuren had not been nearly this obsessed with his foundation.
Back then, he had been afraid of the Calamity Flame and wanted to become stronger as quickly as possible.
He had wanted to grow strong enough to find some clue to resolving the Calamity Flame.
But impatience had a way of inviting disaster.
Shuren had only avoided collapse because his body in his previous life had been blessed with talent.
Had he possessed the body of an ordinary person, he would have broken down long ago.
‘If I hadn't been so impatient back then and had built up my fundamentals more thoroughly, could I have avoided dying when I fought the Demon God?’
The thought crossed his mind.
If so, the Flamer Family might never have been driven all the way to the edge of a cliff.
GRIP.
His hand tightened around the sword.
‘This new life came to me through a stroke of fortune. This time, I'll prepare properly.’
Shuren made the vow inwardly.
In his previous life, every battle had required him to risk his life in order to win.
In this life, he wanted to become strong enough that he would no longer have to do that.
With complicated emotions swirling inside him, Shuren continued swinging his sword.
SWOOSH—!
A faint flame flickered in the wake of his blade.
Shuren did not suppress the emotions rising within him.
He placed them directly into his sword.
SWISH—!
He poured self-reproach into the path of his blade.
Flames flickered along its edge.
WHOOSH—!
Then he poured regret into the next sword path.
The flames grew fiercer.
FSSSH—!
Into the final sword path, he engraved his resolve.
A clean horizontal slash.
The flames scattered and vanished.
This was the Flamer Family's first secret art.
Flame in the Ashes.
‘Its power…… increased.’
Shuren could feel it as he performed the technique.
It was clearly different from when he had first used the secret art in his previous life.
The flames were denser, murkier, and tinged with black.
It was the result of the Calamity Flame's power being added to them.
‘As I thought. Releasing the Calamity Flame instead of suppressing it was the right answer.’
Shuren realized his theory had been correct.
It had also increased the power of his swordsmanship.
Of course, that was not the only difference from the past.
The guilt weighing heavily on Shuren's heart.
He placed that emotion into his sword.
And the swordsmanship seemed to evolve another step.
‘Putting emotion into the sword……’
In his previous life, he had been wary of doing so.
He had only ever charged forward in pursuit of growth.
But today, he felt as though he had grasped something.
‘Maybe that's enough training for today.’
Shuren let the bitter feeling pass and sheathed his sword.
***
The days passed quickly, and before long, the day arrived for him to enter the formal training center.
Contrary to Canyon's worries, none of the families that had sent gold tried anything.
Everything had gone exactly as Shuren expected.
‘They know how embarrassing it would be. After handing over the gold, taking revenge because they regretted losing it would only make them look even worse.’
Shuren packed his belongings and left the house.
“Those two months passed quickly.”
“Shuren. Do not push yourself too hard.”
His family saw him off with worried expressions.
“It's not my first time leaving. Don't worry too much.”
Shuren answered with a smile.
“Of course, I saw what you were capable of during the final exam. But as your father, I cannot help worrying. It is good that you excel, but do not draw too much attention to yourself. I fear someone may try to harm you.”
His father gave him heartfelt advice.
Shuren understood perfectly well why he was saying it.
The main family already regarded them as a thorn in its side.
Canyon feared they might decide to crush the sprout before it could grow and do something cruel to the young Shuren.
“It's fine. You saw me squeeze gold out of nobles from other families, didn't you? I'm not someone who'll be pushed around that easily.”
“I suppose that is true.”
Shuren's confidence eased his parents' worries, if only a little.
“Our little brother is much stronger than us. He's not the kind of guy who'll go somewhere and get beaten up.”
Shuren's siblings standing beside their parents joined in as well.
“From now on, I'll reclaim the things that were taken from us. Please look forward to it, Father, Mother.”
With those words, Shuren climbed into the carriage.
CLOP-CLOP-CLOP.
The carriage began moving into the distance.
‘Reclaim the things that were taken from us……’
Canyon watched the carriage grow smaller.
He did not know exactly what Shuren meant.
His son had always acted as though he were pursuing some vast goal.
But Canyon knew Shuren was an exceptionally clever child, and not merely because he was his son.
That only made him worry more.
‘What exactly is that child running toward? The road ahead of him seems so very long…… It pains me.’
But as a father who bore the Pellantz surname only in the hollowest sense as part of a branch family, there was little Canyon could do for Shuren.
All he could do was avoid obstructing his path, support him, and pray that he remained safe.
***
The training center Shuren would enter this time was located deeper inside than the place where he had previously trained.
Since this facility taught formal trainees rather than probationary trainees, it was far larger than the previous one.
Pellantz employees bustled around preparing for the enrollment ceremony scheduled for that afternoon.
But as they worked, they noticed something strange.
Compared to usual, this year's ceremony was modest.
Being a knight was an honorable profession.
Since this ceremony marked the first step on that path, it normally drew a large crowd and was held on a grand scale.
In particular, many children from influential families entered this facility.
Plenty of people came hoping to form connections with them.
Yet very few families were attending today.
“This enrollment ceremony is unbelievably modest compared to the old days.”
“I don't know whether to call it modest or shabby.”
“Shh. Watch what you say. Less work is good for us.”
The employees whispered among themselves as they worked.
“There was a huge mess during this exam, wasn't there?”
“What mess?”
“Huh? You didn't hear?”
“You've got connections everywhere and hear all sorts of things. So what happened?”
“I only heard it secondhand, but apparently something unpleasant happened during this exam. During the final stage, a trainee humiliated a child from the direct line and children from several other influential families.”
“Something like that happened?”
“Looks like orders came down from above because of it. The Commander even said he wouldn't attend, claiming he had a busy schedule.”
“The Commander, who gives a speech at every enrollment ceremony, isn't coming either? That's surprising!”
“Seems like they want this ceremony to pass quietly, unlike before.”
After hearing the explanation, the others understood and nodded.
“Anyway, let's finish the work quickly.”
With no more interesting gossip to share, the employees went back to their assigned tasks.
***
Shuren arrived exactly when the enrollment ceremony was scheduled to begin.
‘What a gloomy atmosphere.’
He did not even need to look around to understand why.
Any child who had made it far enough to enter this place came from a powerful family.
Yet they had been humiliated by a single branch-family child.
During the two-month break, those children must have had their souls thoroughly stripped bare by their families.
Shuren could roughly tell what had happened, so he looked at them with pity.
The children who met his gaze immediately turned their heads away.
‘Are they scared of me?’
Shuren brushed it off lightly.
Jake, however, was different.
Unlike the other children, he stared fixedly at Shuren's back.
‘That bastard…… is he some kind of monster? He's already reached Two-Star!’
Jake could tell from sensing Shuren's energy.
Two Rings were revolving within him.
‘What kind of training did he do to grow that explosively?’
Jake inwardly clicked his tongue at Shuren's growth rate.
The last time he had seen him, Shuren had only been One-Star.
Yet after a mere two months, he had already created another Ring.
Jake could not understand it.
“Welcome, all of you who passed this year's exam.”
Before long, a man stepped onto the platform and announced the beginning of the enrollment ceremony.
“The Commander is unable to attend today due to his schedule, so I, the Vice Commander, will conduct the enrollment ceremony in his place.”
With all the empty formalities removed, the ceremony was simple.
Without much of a greeting, the Vice Commander immediately began explaining the training center's curriculum at length.
“Haah. What kind of mess is this?”
At that moment, Shuren heard some of the few attendees talking nearby.
They were nobles who had come to the enrollment ceremony just in case.
For them, events like this were important because they needed connections with influential families.
But Shuren had ruined the entire occasion.
“Isn't all of this because they were humiliated by some branch-family brat nobody even knew existed?”
“That's him. The red-haired child standing there with his head held high.”
“All because of that lowly brat, this year's enrollment ceremony has turned into this?”
Every remark they made was criticism directed at Shuren.
‘What a bunch of idiots. What a sight.’
Shuren sighed inwardly as he listened.
‘Back in my day, each of the Four Great Families operated its own knight order training center. Back then, simply setting foot inside one was considered an honor.’
The Four Great Families had divided the continent into four parts.
Each family operated a knight order training center to raise talented knights.
Even children of the family itself had to pass through the training center before they could become knights.
‘And now a knight order's enrollment ceremony has become nothing more than a social gathering for making connections?’
Even a place intended to train knights was being controlled not by martial prowess, but by status.
Shuren had never experienced the Pellantz Family's knight order himself, but two hundred years ago, it certainly could not have been like this.
While Shuren complained inwardly, the enrollment ceremony was drawing to a close.
“……!”
At that moment, Shuren felt the air around him grow heavy.
‘What is this feeling?’
At the same time, he sensed a sudden commotion breaking out in the distance.
BANG—!
The auditorium doors flew open.
“Huff, huff!”
A man in armor rushed inside, breathing heavily.
“Huh? Isn't that……?”
“Isn't that the Commander? I heard he couldn't attend because he was busy.”
The man who appeared was the Commander of the Hatchling Knight Order.
His unexpected arrival threw the hall into confusion.
And he was not the only one.
People from other influential families began arriving one after another and filling the empty seats.
“Isn't that Sir From?”
“It is! He is a noble from one of the more influential families within the Pellantz Family.”
“Why would someone like him come here?”
This enrollment ceremony had clearly been expected to be a lackluster affair.
Yet now people from influential families were arriving one after another.
Everyone wondered what was happening.
The auditorium, which had been nearly empty except for the trainees, became crowded in an instant.
THOOM! THOOM!
Then everyone present felt it.
A reverberation like footsteps, yet as grand as the pounding of enormous drums.
But they were not footsteps.
It was an illusion created by an overwhelming presence.
‘Where is this pressure coming from?’
Shuren sensed it as well and immediately sharpened his attention.
“The Family Head is arriving!”
“……?!”
Everyone present was stunned.
Even if this was the enrollment ceremony for trainees of the Hatchling Knight Order, the Family Head himself was appearing?
The moment the announcement ended, Theon Pellantz, head of the Pellantz Family, entered.
“Urgh!”
“Ghh…….”
As soon as the Family Head appeared, the young entrants began collapsing one after another.
They could not withstand the pressure radiating from him.
‘Good grief. The Family Head is playing tricks on children? His character is rotten. Completely rotten.’
But among all the entrants, there was one exception.
Shuren alone remained standing beneath the Family Head's overwhelming pressure.